Conphorm’s pattern puzzle

These handbags are made from 2 layers of industrial wool felt with a zipper sewn around the edges. When open, the piece lays completely flat. When zipped, the piece turns into an organic 3-dimensional form. Comes in 4 sizes: wallet, purse, clutch, and carry.

In my -professional- opinion, these are sufficiently unique that they could be patented and you know I don’t say that often. In fact I wish Josh Jakus had gone through the rigors of the process. Isn’t that the way it works? It’s so common that real innovators put cool stuff out there and the one-idea-in-a-lifetime folks have to patent the lamest things. I hope Josh becomes tremendously successful and I look forward to seeing whatever else he cooks up. Via Treehugger.

[post appended] I just bought one off the website. Conphorm takes paypal!

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Kathleen started production patternmaking in 1981. Starting in 1993, she began providing consulting and engineering services to manufacturers, small companies, and startups with an emphasis on developing owner-operator domestic cut-and-sew operations. In 2015 she opened a 5,000 sqft. fully equipped sewing factory: The Sewing Factory School. Kathleen is the author of The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing, the most highly rated book of any topic in the garment industry. She's been mentioned numerous times in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, National Public Radio, Boston Globe, LA Times, Vogue, French Vogue and has at least 15 Project Runway alums at last count. Kathleen writes nearly all of the articles on Fashion-Incubator.com and hosts its forum, the largest private online community for apparel manufacturers on the web.

8 comments

Those are gorgeous! I love amorphous design. The only problem I see is that the contents of the purse could fall out of the handles but probably no worse than a regular tote. If he placed 2 snaps underneath the handle that could remedy that problem and it could still remain flat when unzipped.

I’d think this is a great example of creative synchronicity. I see they’re each using similar concepts but the patterns are very different. Bomb design seems to be similar to the concepts that Julian follows (under Julian’s pattern school in my left side bar).

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Often described as the garment industry “blue book,” Kathleen's book is the most highly rated guide to the business. The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing is guaranteed to get you off to a solid start or your money back. Many service providers will require you to read it before they’ll work with you.